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Re-Review: Trying out Age of Conan again
Elikal
Member UncommonPosts: 7,912
Ya know, visually I had always loved AoC. I liked the setting and my blonde barbarian hunk running through the nice sceneries. I also loved Tortage... but as everyone who played AoC knows: Tortage is not AoC.
To this very day it puzzles me, how any developer could have played Tortage and NOT realize how much it would make the rest of the game looked way more flawed that it is in itself. It just sets the bar of coherence and immersion so high, the rest always felt way more pale that it would otherwise.
So, after pausing a year I felt like giving the new expansion Rise of the Godslayer a try. I was always a fan of ancient Chinese, so I was of course curious to see this iteration, the Empire of Khitai. I started as a Khitai Ranger, since I always liked playing a Ranger class in MMOs for the versatile experience. Scout classes are always my favor, not the heavy tanks or mages. Anywho. Tortage was, as ever, a fun and well balanced experience.
Then... I hit the Level 20+ Khitai area. And it was like hitting a marble wall with 100 miles per hour. It's as if someone had suddenly raised the difficulty bar from normal to insane. I know, there are those who enjoy just that, but one might wonder what possessed Funcom to make their new cool showoff area so difficult. I tried out two different servers, Crom and the RP PVE server. Crom is likely the most populated server, but alas, I wasn't very happy there. After five tiresome hours listening to endless talks about boobs, asses, penisses, moms and being gay (you get the idea), I thought if I had to listen to that trash another minute I would explode. So off I went to the RP PVE server. Which proved to be the lowest populated server, but the most decend folks. So I had the choice to either have groups and jerks or nice people but always die soloing.
My gripe Number 1 about Khitai is the difficulty. When you leave Tortage with level 21 or so, the Level 20+ Khitai area is a chore. Most classe will constantly die, and what WOULD work in a highly populated area, just totally doesn't. For the first hours I thought it was another single player area, until I realized the size of the place and finally saw one lone Necro running by. Unless you stick to the one or two really big servers, the game in the lower half is dead as can be. With the strong mobs, difficult quest, fast respawn and many roamers, it makes the level 20+ experience painful and frustrating. I didn't expect things to be easy, but when I compre it to my experiences with LOTRO, Champions Online or Warhammer - games I played in the last 2 years mainly - I wonder how Funcom thought to capture people, given the usualy difficulty most MMO gamers today are used. As it is, it's still the niche game it has proven to be when it launched. The difficulty and frustration I felt was even higher than from Vanguard, and that means something. Its especially because you can hardly control how many mobs you fetch. Sneak breaks so easy, it is almost useless. Roamers are many and have great circles. Respawn is fast. With so few players in the open world, it just doesn't work out.
Besides the new scenery, nothing really changed. Yes you get an Alternative Advancement system, but heck, even the EQ2 AA system was fast paced and easy compared to AoC. Given the unbelievably high amount of XP you have to gather for ANY AA to unlock, any casual gamer can forget seeing anything before being level 40 or more.
A bad deja vu was when I learned a substatial part of the gamer are in daily quests, instanced dungeons and the like, which bring more XP and better loot. It reminded me wickedly of the bane "Labyrinth of the Minotaur" did to DaoC: a vast part of the open world was suddenly drained of gamers. And so it is with Rise of the Godslayer. While in theory there are some players, a vast number just vanishes in dungeon instance grinding, depleteing the already empty overland zones even more. It makes me wonder why a company would make so fundamental and well know mistakes. Instances always draw away gamers and an empty open world is the last thing you want for your MMO. It just adds to the overall difficulty of the game, as mentioned.
The other gripe, itemization, is so far the same as ever. One thing I loathed about AoC was all the way up my Barbarian was wearing iterations of brown sack cloth. The same pattern just with 10 different variations of brown. When I worked my way up questing my Ranger in Khitai, I thought I would get something Asia style, something cool looking. Nada. It was exactly the same brown sackcloth stuff I knew from one year ago.
All in all, I am quite disappointed. Rise of the Godslayer just added more landscape to the game, and thats basically it. The changes beyond that are so minimal and out of reach for any normal player, like all the really cool gear is for endgame and PVP grinder only, it makes going back entirely superfluous. I really wonder why Funcom did not make more of it. Making Khitai a bit more accessible. We live in 2010, people are used the soloabilty of LOTRO, CO, WAR and other games. Compared to that the game felt like a 1985 hardship chore to me. And the game itself doesn't offer enough goodies to compensate for that, not to say that the vast part of the MMO gamer market went into a more easygoing way. I don't get what the desingers reasons were for this, which more or less will prolly be the nail on the coffin for AoC. Given the wonderful world of Conan and the interesting combat, it is quite a shame. I can't recommend AoC as it is, and there isn't really anything new.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Comments
This isn't a review. It's Elikal bitching about yet another game. I'm having a blast in the game!
Thread cleaned up. Let's keep the discussion relevant to the topic of the thread.
Anyway.
I've wanted to give this game a try, but there's just something that makes me step away from it every time. I can't quite put my finger on it...
Does anybody else have any experience with it? I'd like to read up on some more opinions.
If you disagree, maybe you elaborate. Saying it isnt a review because you disagree with the result isn't really a discussion.
IGN said pretty much the same:
"The difficulty level in Khitai is a noticeably higher than in the old country. Unless you're very well geared, you're probably going to need a few perks under your belt before you will be able to tackle Paikang, the 'final' and prettiest open-world zone of Rise of the Godslayer."
"However, quests aren't as varied as you might hope, and very few ever lead anywhere. Once you complete a quest, about half the time they'll just ask you to do it again, and the other half of the time, that's the end of the quest-line. It's mostly just grinding, even at times during the main quest line. You need to reach a certain level in at least one of your chosen factions before you can make progress, and that means performing repeatable quests and getting special tokens to turn in. I've never been a fan of reputation-grinding, so this was kind of disappointing."
"If you're a fan of instant gratification (and who isn't!), then you should know that it will also be a long while before you get any gear for all your hard work."
"If you usually require a little guidance for you to have fun, Rise of the Godslayer may just fall short and leave you wandering around."
"Where Age of Conan falls short is in variety, and if reputation grinding is something you cannot abide – and for many MMO players, it is – then Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer is not your expansion."
So I don't see I said anything unexpected. Oh and I did not play WOW. I played it 6 weeks or so over 2 years ago. It just ISNT my reference, so stop claiming it is.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
If you played WoW, you'll always compare the game you are playing to WoW.
.
Other games fall short.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Exactly! That game is a blessing and a curse.
I hope it gets dethroned...
Thanks for the re-review Elikal. We can surely try to improve on some of the aspects you weren't feeling as much. It's always important to get a good sense on where some gameplay may not feel as fun as we liked from different point of views.
Glen ''Famine'' Swan
Senior Assistant Community Manager - Funcom
I play on Wiccana server and my experience leveling in the new areas is nothing like what you have posted in your review. There always seems to be lots of other people around and, when I want to group, i do not have a hard time finding one. The mobs in the new area are tougher but I didn't find this to be a problem. My characters could still solo two of them at a time I just couldn't handle the 3-4 of my level that i could in the old areas. I had to pay a little closer attention to my pulls. It's not like it was a steep learning curve. I also remember very few repeatable quests in the new lowbie zone. Maybe you are referring to the solo faction quests in the 80 zone?
Faction is a grind if you just do the solo quests over and over. That's the stupid way to do it imo. There are several group dungeons and and a few raids that give faction also. Sprinkle these in and it's not quite as much of a grind. It is tough though I'll agree. I do prefer games that don't hand out raid gear to everyone though.
You also stated that there was no asian style clothing in the new zones. That is absolutely false and makes me wonder if you really played the lowbie zone at all. Every quest that gives equipment as a reward provides you with asian style clothing. There are tons of toons running around in asian gear. This is just a false statement in your review.
Funny, I found nothing difficult about level 20-40 in Khitai. Just do the quest and level up, doesn't take long to figure out how far to venture out without getting stomped. And where are all these instances in the 20-40 zone you're taIking about? All of the 20-40 Khitai area and quests are open world in ONE zone. As far as the high level players being in instanced dungeons raiding and doing daily quests, show me an mmo where this isn't the norm outside of EvE. And even then, the biggest portion of level 80 Khitai quests and such are, again, OPEN WORLD. I'm on Wicanna and ALWAYS see people running around in Grasslands, for instance.
Also, AA/Perks are not meant for every newbie to have at low levels. They are meant for endgame, which is why they were put in place in lieu of a raise in level cap. By the time ypu're 80, you should have enough XP to open up the perks. And you'll also note that at level 80 you can train Perks over time ( while also gaining AA xp the normal way at the same time ). Another hint that AA/Perks/Faction are meant for high level players to have a reason to continue playing when they hit 80.
I just really think the OP didn't grasp any of this, and is simply basing his review on ignorance of how everything works, rather than trying to understand the new areas and the new mechanics added with the expansion.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I am gonna have to counter some of this. Firstly, I will be the first to admit that AoC was a HATE/Want to love thing for me since launch. Anyway, I agree with the Tortage being so different from the rest of the game is a little weird, but their only reason for doing it that way was to get the game launched (prematurely). They needed that first 20 levels as a hook, otherwise they would have been worse off than they were.
Now as far as itemization, it has improved DRASTICALLY from launch. Granted some of the gear doesn't change looks much, but you can do only so much within the lore/style of the game. There are only so many ways to style a dong thong. However, there has been some rather nice additions to the style and stats of the majority of armors. You mention the Khitai not having any asian style armors, when infact there is tons of it from quests. Right now both my Bear Shaman and my Dark Templar have full on armors, that are old world Chinese from head to toe. Plus stats are actually useful now unlike launch.
Yes there is a bit of an increase in difficulty leaving Tortage, but not so much that even the weakest classes couldn't solo any quest not marked as a group thing. I will say some areas of the Gateway of Khitai area bitch, namely around the (intentionally) unkillable demon dead horses that chase you for 39.6 miles, but all it takes is paying attention to your surroundings and moving at the right time. In reference to the review you quoted later on, the areas they focused on were the lvl 80 zones. Those were intentionally way more difficult since so many people complained about lack of content for end game. It was designed to add a bit of challenge, to make sure people didn't feel like they could just walk where ever they wanted now that they were lvl capped. Also, while a Ranger is in no way the easiest class to play, they can kill rather quickly. Most multiple pulls are 2 or 3 mobs each. Stay in the shadows with maxed hide skill, and use mezz shot from max range, switch targets and at least one should drop on approach or with one or two quick melee jabs. The mezzed mob should be running to you at that point so start shotting him in the face and he will drop soon enough.
The AA system is a bit hard to deal with but atleast you get 2 potions that give a point each from quest chains around the 30-35 mark. However I agree that the amount of XP needed to earn them means they are mostly made as a time sink for older characters.
As far as the players all being in instances, yeah that sucks. Although, those very instances are what people cried about for a year, so Funcom just gave people what they asked for. With so many new instances, you will see less players until the "newness" wears off, just like any other game that has an added instance/Xpac. It will stabilize eventually.
Also personally I like the challenges thrown at you with this game. It's one of the reasons I stay with it now. Wanting it to be dumbed down and easyed up would severly ruin it for me. Most MMO's now do spoon feed their babies and I hate it. I want there to be something that makes me actually feel like I have to pay attention to whats going on or face the consequences of a club in the groin or a hoof in the face. Yes the difficulty could be made more consistent, but please don't just make it easier all around.
All in all the newest additions are a plus in my opinion. They were definitely a step in the right direction, and many of the fixes and changes made in previous patches have improved the game significantly. My biggest gripe right now is with the recent addition of server lag spikes that seem to come at the worst possible time. Unfortunately the Gateway to Khitai zone is actually worse than most parts of the game. Some nights you play for hours without a single spike, and other nights, I have had to play different characters on other servers or switch games altogether. It was recently stabilized a bit with a mini patch, but it really needs to be fixed completely. Oh and it's not just me, it's the server since everyone on the server lags at the same time and we all just sit and chat. Don't ask me why the chat side never lags lol.
Lastly, changing servers or losing interest based on what other people are talking about is odd to me. Yeah you see people chatting about body parts and gross bodily misconduct, but the chat channels can be turned on and off easily and the ignore list is quite large. If you like the population of the server then temporarily turn it off for a bit. Every game has the same kind of chatting at some point whenever there is a global chat arena.
Anyways, that my 2.3 cents. Take it with a grain of salt. It took me 4 tries to stick with AoC and I can finally say that as of right now I am. No the game isn't perfect and they have a long ways to go, but it is vastly improved from the debacle that was the too early launch.